“We’re out of hangers.” It’s amazing how those four tiny words can make my wife go completely insane. I’m not exactly sure why she loses her mind over something as simple as a molded piece of plastic with a hook on it. Maybe she has some deep seeded fear that Captain Hook will sweep in and take her to Neverland and make her walk the plank? Regardless of the reason behind her psychotic hanger behavior the fact remains that once someone utters those four words there is going to be trouble.

When I began to contemplate going on a diet I had to go through a self-evaluation. I knew that if I started this journey that I wanted to be fully committed to reaching my goal. The last thing I wanted was to stop or give up part way through. Part of this evaluation was to understand whether I needed to lose weight and where. By where I didn’t mean “in the house” or “on the sofa” but rather which parts of my body was I hoping to “re-shape”.

The photographs that were taken at our last family vacation to Disneyland last fall made it blatantly obvious where I needed to lose a few pounds. My midsection had gotten a little rounder than I had remembered in the past making most of my pants and shorts tighter than they were.

One constant throughout our marriage has been my wife Trina’s continual complaints about being cold. It doesn’t seem to matter what the ambient temperature is, it is not nearly warm enough for her. The reason for her being cold is likely the fact that the woman has little or no body fat to insulate her. She weighs within a few pounds of when she was in high school and by within a few I think she is actually less now than she was then.

I remember when we were thinking about moving away from Idaho and I asked her if she had any preferences. He response was, “anywhere warm”. I suggested Arizona but that it got very hot there. She suggested that there was nowhere outside the surface of the sun that would be too warm. I took that challenge and to her word she hasn’t complained even when summer temperatures reach 120 degrees.

Do you ever have one of those days where you stumble out of bed, stagger into the bathroom and stare at the mirror and ask yourself, “Who are you and what have you done with Jeff?” Well unless your name is Jeff you probably haven’t had one of those days and I’m here to tell you that you’re pretty lucky that you haven’t.

Today was one of those days where I didn’t even recognize who I was any more. It’s not so much the weight loss although I am getting more and more comments about how thin I am getting especially in my face and neck. No I am talking about something much more sinister and thought provoking.

On March 7th like countless others I was glued to my computer screen to listen as Apple announced the new iPad. I was an early adopter of the iPad when it was initially released. The tablet form factor was intriguing and I wondered whether Apple could pull it off?

Not only did they “pull it off” but they redefined a market segment and brought truly portable computing to the masses with a simple interface and a powerful ecosystem of applications that allowed the user to personalize the device to do exactly what they wanted.

Let me start out by saying that I am not Irish, none of my family is Irish, heck I don’t even have an Irish Setter so for me to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day is quite a stretch. Like most American’s I will be sporting green apparel and at times I will even do my favorite Lucky Charms leprechaun impression.

Normally around our house the St. Patrick’s Day celebration begins with a traditional breakfast of ham with scrambled eggs. The eggs of course have been laced with green food coloring making this a breakfast of “Green Eggs and Ham”. This year though we broke with tradition and instead had green instant oatmeal. It just wasn’t the same but there was a reason why I broke with tradition.

It used to be that I looked forward to Friday just to start the weekend. After a full week of work I needed a couple of days off if for no other reason that to get a reprieve from the stress of my job. Since starting this diet, I have both anticipated and dreaded Fridays.

Friday marks the end of each week on the diet which means that my reading assignment and homework is due today and I have to step on the scale to see what progress if any I am making in the weight loss department.

“It’s Spring Break!” For many people especially those in their wild college years that statement immediately brings to mind frat parties, endless drinking, and scantily clad women prancing around; yes I did say prance.

Around our house that announcement is akin to being rounded up and sent to a concentration camp. Instead of wild parties where anything goes, a Spring Break around our house is an endless array of chores and spring-cleaning to prepare the house for the upcoming summer and pool season.

This weight loss journey has been very educational both from a physical and a mental perspective. I went into this fairly naïve having never tried to lose weight before. I guess I thought that I would just cut down on what I was eating, maybe exercise a little and the weight would magically start falling off.

That is after all what we are led to believe from the countless television commercials showing someone extremely obese who is transformed into a living stick figure who is now the spokesperson for some kind of diet program.